ConnecTID Model Ensures Vision Achieved for USF Honors College

The Judy Genshaft Honors College on the University of South Florida’s (USF) Tampa campus is a new architectural landmark for USF students, faculty, and staff. Opened in 2023, the $56 million, 85,000-square-foot, five-story building aggregates honor students from every undergraduate college previously distributed across three separate campuses into a modern facility for their experience-based educational studies.

Once the idea to design and construct the Honors College in a central location was hatched, several donations were made to ensure the structure was built, including a $20 million donation from former USF President Judy Genshaft and her husband, Steve Greenbaum. Genshaft served as the USF president from 2000-2019.

The Judy Genshaft Honors College features a glazed ground floor level that anchors more opaque floors above. The asymmetrical facade is made up of 127 prefabricated aluminum panels. The cladding’s iridescent dichroic coating—which changes color from maroon to yellow to green in different light conditions and from different view perspectives—has a shimmering metallic finish. The architect specified this type of panel because it helps reflect sunlight to minimize solar heat gain, in addition to the green hue nearly matching the University’s “USF Green” core color. Hovering above the inviting outdoor stair the same facade panel is perforated and suspended from the building’s steel and concrete structure and appears to “peel away” from the structure to accentuate its dynamic form and create shaded outdoor terraces. The “peel away” is a specific design-oriented area with perforated metal panel above a monumental circulation stair. It is not part of the facade or building envelope in its role to keep water out or controlling thermal conductivity but instead provides solar shading and iconic architectural intent.

The LEED Silver certified building also features an expansive five-story atrium at the main level as well as open and closed classrooms, collaboration spaces, 39 distinctly designed learning lofts, student terrace, a professional kitchen, and dedicated studio spaces for students.

Designed by Morphosis Architects with architect of record FleischmanGarciaMaslowski, the sophisticated and unique design, with geometries that shift along the building’s facade, required precise planning and coordination to ensure the varied design elements and materials meshed effectively and efficiently. Working in concert with the architectural teams, Walter P Moore served as the structural engineer, enclosure consultant as well as the steel and concrete rebar detailer for the project.

To achieve the vision set forth by the architectural team and USF, engineers from Walter P Moore developed a fully coordinated 3D structural model in Tekla using the firm’s proprietary collaborative digital process known as Connected Transformative Integrated Delivery (ConnecTID). The model was used to solicit and onboard the subcontractors and helped reduce risk on the project by being openly shared with the construction manager, The Beck Group, who engaged key design assist partners including the concrete contractor, Ceco Concrete Construction, the steel contractor, Morrow Steel, and the facade systems contractor, MG McGrath.

The connected model allowed shop drawings to be developed in 3D as the permit documents were being completed, which included advanced detailing of all the structural steel connections and the rebar. The process included a three-month’s accelerated shop drawing timeline, which ultimately helped to reduce the number of requests for information as the Level of Development (LOD400) fabrication level model served to build and coordinate the complex integrated structural framing virtually prior to construction in real life.

The connected model workflow allowed the entire building team to understand the expectations asked of them before construction started. For example, it allowed the concrete contractor to get a near exact count on the amount of rebar so they could define an accurate bid. The modeling also allowed for the architect to visualize how the coordination between trades could impact their design vision and they could respond with necessary modifications as required to address unique conditions.

The initial facade assembly to achieve the complex geometry for the Judy Genshaft Honors College building was to use stud framed “mega panels.” However, this design evolved to utilizing a large-format off-the-shelf aluminum curtain wall panelized system. This move increased the required coordination needed to accommodate the massing’s curves in a cohesive and appealing manner. The original geometric discretion of the curves into panels worked with faceting of the geometry just like the curtain walls. The change resulted in revisiting the panelization for capability and joinery. Revisiting with curtain wall capabilities required rethinking some of the more bespoke areas, and ultimately, design architect Morphosis Architects modeled the curtain wall geometry.

The complexity for the facade lies in achieving the aspirational curved geometry with a unitized curtain wall system. Faceting a curved geometry with large format rectilinear flat panels makes achieving the complex geometry challenging. If not done with a detail-oriented perspective, the smooth curve would result in a slatted or angular surface. Typical large format panels on rectilinear areas of the project were completely fabricated in the shop and arrived on site ready to be installed on the building. Areas with particularly challenging geometries required the team to be flexible and create deviations from the previously defined assemblies to enable the installation. Face panels and insulation were left uninstalled on these panels, which were installed with penetrations to adjust for consistent joints and alignment of the facade surfaces. After the panels were adjusted properly on site, the insulation and face panel were installed.

The curtain wall panels and associated cladding system were engineered detailed, fabricated, and installed by MG McGrath, while the geometry of the cladding system was defined by Morphosis Architects. The Enclosure Engineering Group from Walter P Moore provided consultation to properly design and uphold best practices for technical performance given the ambitious geometry. The close collaboration on facade, structure, and connection design enabled quick turnaround for structural changes and modifications as the design of the facade progressed during MG McGrath’s design assist process.

Most of the facade panels are unitized, large format, curtain wall panels measuring 10 x 10 feet, twice as wide as units commonly used in the industry, which required enhanced precision but also resulted in decreased installation time when compared to a comparable sized project with standard-sized unitized panels. While attaching the panels to a floor slab to allow the loads to transfer through the embedded floor plates is standard, the slabs on the project were relatively ambitiously cantilevered floor plates. Limiting the differential movement allowed for the curtain wall system to accommodate the vertical movement within the slotted attachment along the top and bottom edges of the panels. Panels followed standard unitized curtain wall approach, which is to hang the units along the upper part of the panel. Maximum differential movement up and down that can be accommodated is ¾-inch.

As the design team reviewed the shop drawings and engineering for the prefabricated rainscreen system panels from MG McGrath, Walter P Moore’s Structures Group concurrently reviewed specifications and drawings for the rebar, embed plates, and structural steel to ensure there were no conflicts.